As announced by the Prime Minister, the Visa on Arrival for Japanese nationals is being launched from tomorrow i.e. 1st March, 2016. This facility will be available at six airports viz. Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad. This facility can be availed for the purposes of business, tourism, conference and medical. Validity of this visa after entry will be for a period of 30 days. The facility being given to Japanese will be an upgradation of e-Tourist Visa currently offered to citizens of 150 countries.

About 1.80 lakh Japanese nationals visit India every year on various kinds of visas. Business and Tourist Visas constitute around 78% of these. On an average 600 Japanese nationals arrive at Delhi Airport daily. It is expected that extension of this facility to Japanese nationals will further strengthen the business and tourism ties between the two countries.

During the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Mr Shinzo Abe to India during December last year, the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had announced that India will extend ‘Visa on arrival’ to Japanese citizens from 1st March 2016.

Though visa-on-arrival facility was earlier offered to citizens of 12 countries — Cambodia, Finland, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Luxembourg, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and Republic of Korea — it was discontinued in November 2014 after the launch of e-Tourist Visa scheme.